>> PAGING DR. STRANGELOVE: Spies worry over 'doomsday' cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden, by Mark Hosenball: "British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a 'doomsday' cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said." Reuters

>> LIBERTY & JUSTICE: Jury: Newegg infringes Spangenberg patent, must pay $2.3 million, by Joe Mullin: "Newegg, an online retailer that has made a name for itself fighting the non-practicing patent holders sometimes called 'patent trolls,' sits on the losing end of a lawsuit... Determined lawyers -- and the father of modern crypto -- couldn't stop TQP patent… The jury... found that the patent was valid, apparently rejecting arguments by famed cryptographer Whitfield Diffie. Diffie took the stand on Friday to argue on behalf of Newegg and against the patent. In total, the jury ordered Newegg to pay $2.3 million." Ars Technica

>> STAT DU JOUR: When will there be one billion iOS devices in use?, by Horace Dediu: "iOS unit sales crossed over 700 million units last month. That is a significant milestone but the total number of units in use is likely to be lower. My estimate based on device replacement assumptions is that about 500 million are still in use... would therefore imply (nearly) one billion iOS devices in use by the end of 2018." Asymco

>> WINDOWS 8 EPITAPH: A new hint about Microsoft's One Windows vision, by Paul Thurrott: "If I'm understanding [Microsoft executive VP of Devices and Studios Julie] Larson-Green's comments, what Microsoft is working toward is essentially 'two' Windows -- really, two families of Windows -- that we might divide into the desktop haves and the desktop have-nots... I think... that Windows Phone and Windows RT will in effect be merged and that no matter what the resulting name of that products is -- how about 'Windows'? -- it will simply be a single platform that runs on mobile computing devices from phones to phablets to tablets to hybrid PCs, with just software-based changes necessitated by differences in the form factor or mission of the devices on which it runs." WindowsITPro

>> DEMOTIVATIONAL POSTER: Amazon workers face 'increased risk of mental illness': "Undercover reporter Adam Littler, 23, got an agency job at Amazon's Swansea warehouse. He took a hidden camera inside for BBC Panorama to record what happened on his shifts. He was employed as a 'picker', collecting orders from 800,000 sq ft of storage. A handset told him what to collect and put on his trolley. It allotted him a set number of seconds to find each product and counted down. If he made a mistake the scanner beeped." BBC

>>>> Amazon hits back over Panorama claims about working conditions at Swansea warehouse Wales Online

>> KING CONTENT: Couric hire is key to Yahoo's mobile strategy, by Alex Wilhelm: "The company only has to ensure that the mobile experiences that it builds are compelling, and then monetize the heck out of their recurring usage.... That's Yahoo's recipe to ignite revenue growth, it seems. Its search business, despite managing to force Microsoft to extend a revenue deal, is likely mature and is definitely slipping. Its year-over-year top line is in decline, as is Yahoo's larger search market share." TechCrunch

>> VELVET ROPE: Salesforce's Superpod shows big clients want to be treated differently, says SAP cloud chief, by Derek du Preez: "Salesforce's recent tie-up with HP to provide large enterprises with their own private stack in Salesforce's data centre is an indication that big clients want to be treated differently in the cloud... customers wanting to take advantage of the 'Superpod' will receive their own hardware stack and will not have their data sitting alongside other companies." Computerworld UK

>> NEOCRIME: Million-dollar robbery rocks Bitcoin exchange, by Jon Gold: "Bitcoin Internet Payment Services, a Denmark-based exchange billing itself as Europe's biggest, was robbed of bitcoins worth more than $1 million in a theft that took place over the course of the past several days... It's the third major heist this month -- about $1.4 million worth was stolen several weeks ago from an anonymous Australian who ran an online wallet service known as Inputs.io, and a Chinese exchange abruptly vanished two weeks ago, taking more than $4 million with it. Smaller thefts, which affected consumer exchanges in the Czech Republic and Poland, have also taken place this month." NetworkWorld

>> NOT DEAD YET: Bumpy landing of iOS 7 in the enterprise leaves room for Windows Phone growth, says ABI Research, by Joseph Tsai: "When looking at adoption trends in specific regions, we see areas where Windows Phone stands to gain significantly. For example, Windows Phone consumer adoption has been very strong in Europe. As demonstrated by the Apple and Android platforms, a growing base of consumers is a key driver for expansion into the enterprise." DigiTimes

>> KEYSTONE COPS: Benioff: Salesforce.com will do 'full review' of hackathon after controversy, by Chris Kanaracus: "Salesforce.com has come under fire from critics who say the 'hackathon' it held at last week's Dreamforce conference was judged unfairly... Contestants in the hackathon competed to make a mobile application using Salesforce.com's technology. The top $1 million prize went to Upshot, which developed an application that allows users to create and edit Salesforce.com reports from mobile devices. The official rules for the hackathon allowed coding to begin on an application as of Oct. 25, when the contest was announced. Eligible applications also had to be 'developed solely as part of this Hackathon,' the rules state. But after Upshot was announced as the winner, other contestants quickly voiced complaints online. For one thing, it appeared that Upshot's CTO Thomas Kim had demoed a similar-sounding application a couple of weeks before Oct. 25." PCWorld

>> MEANWHILE, IN HELL: Wanted: Web/Software developer & Sys admin: "All of us here work tremendously hard to do a lot of things, and if you'd like to be at the technical epicenter of it all and don't mind having a really bad sense of work-life balance, this is the job for you." LinkedIn